Gorst returned to England, and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1865. He stood unsuccessfully as conservative candidate for Hastings in the same year. In 1866 he was returned for the borough of Cambridge, and during the next two years attracted the notice of Mr. Disraeli as an active and independent member. After losing his seat in 1868 he was asked to undertake the reorganization of the conservative party machinery on a popular basis. He devoted the next five years to this work, without salary, and the conservative victory of 1874 was largely attributable to his efforts. He expected office in the conservative administration of that year, but was disappointed, and his relations with the party leaders, with the exception of Disraeli, were henceforth somewhat strained. He re-entered parliament in 1875 as member for Chatham, and took silk in the same year. During the next few years he consolidated his reputation as a lawyer of note.
In the parliament of 1880 Gorst found a congenial associate in Lord Randolph Churchill who, like himself, was of democratic sympathies and naturally restive under official leadership. Originally united by the endeavour to use the Bradlaugh incident to embarrass Mr. Gladstone’s government, Churchill and Gorst, with their allies, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff [q.v.] and Mr. Arthur (afterwards Earl of) Balfour, soon became, as the ‘fourth party’, the most effective section of the opposition. Gorst was a resourceful and persistent critic of the government, and his efforts and those of the ‘party’, met with a certain measure of encouragement from Lord Beaconsfield. His alliance with Lord Randolph Churchill, though chequered by differences over the Coercion Bill of 1881 and over the leadership of the conservative party, lasted for four years. As vice-chairman of the National Union of Conservative Associations he was a useful lieutenant in Churchill’s fight for the party machine. When, however, control of the Union was secured in 1884, Lord Randolph made terms with Lord Salisbury without consulting Gorst, and the breach thus caused was widened by a public difference of opinion over the Franchise Bill of the same year.
On taking office in 1885, Lord Randolph Churchill obtained for Gorst the post of solicitor-general, which carried with it a knighthood. The same post was offered to him on the reconstruction of the government in the next year, but only till such time as a suitable judgeship should fall vacant. He declined the office on these terms, and was appointed under-secretary of state for India (1886). In 1890 he acted as British plenipotentiary at a labour conference in Berlin. From 1891 to 1892 he was financial secretary to the Treasury, and in 1895 he became the last vice-president of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education. Though disappointed that he had not reached higher office, Gorst was genuinely interested in education, and his zeal for social reform increased with age. He retired in 1902 with a pension of £1,200 a year, retaining his seat in the House. Mr. Chamberlain’s fiscal campaign led to his final breach with the conservative party. He declared himself a free trader, and at the 1906 election was rejected by Cambridge University, which he had represented since 1892. Shortly after the election he resigned his trusteeship of the Primrose League, of which he had been one of the original founders.
The rest of Gorst’s public life was devoted to speaking and writing on education, and on health, particularly the health of children. His book, The Children of the Nation (1906), was dedicated to the labour members of the House of Commons. In 1909 he relinquished his pension and was adopted as liberal candidate for Preston. His defeat in 1910 marked the end of his public career. That it was less successful than might have been expected from his energy and ability was probably due to the fact that he could not attach himself whole-heartedly to any political party. Gorst died in London 4 April 1916, and was buried at Castle Combe, Wiltshire. His first wife, by whom he had two sons and six daughters, died in 1914; he married in 1915 Ethel, daughter of Edward Johnson. His eldest son, Sir John Eldon Gorst, K.C.B. [q.v.], was British agent and consul-general in Egypt from 1907 to his death in 1911.
[The Times, 5 April 1916; Sir John E. Gorst, New Zealand Revisited, 1908; Harold E. Gorst(son), The Fourth Party, 1906; private information.]
GOUGH, Sir CHARLES JOHN STANLEY (1832–1912), general, the second son of George Gough, Bengal civil service, of Rathronan, Clonmel, co. Tipperary, by his wife, Charlotte Margaret, daughter of Charles Becher, of Tonbridge, Kent, was born at Chittagong, India, 28 January 1832. Family tradition destined the boy to a soldier’s career in India, where
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